EchoStar To Pay $395K For Racially Motivated Firing

Law360 (June 19, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT) -- A former employee of communications technology company EchoStar Communications Corp. has been awarded $395,000 after an arbitrator ruled that he was terminated because he is black.

The employee, Richard Bradford, was handed the award on June 17, according to plaintiffs' firm Best, Vanderlaan & Harrington.

The nearly $0.5 million-dollar award includes payment for compensatory damages, lost wages and benefits, and attorneys' fees, the firm said.

Bradford, a resident of Wheaton, Ill., filed the lawsuit in November 2005. According to the complaint, he began working at EchoStar's...